


Research Notes from the Desk of Dr. Scratch

by dzonewolf



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sgrub Session, Do not assume I know what I'm talking about, Gen, On the Origin of Trolls, Research notes written by a non-scientist in the POV of a scientist, Troll Biology (Homestuck)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:33:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22547833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dzonewolf/pseuds/dzonewolf
Summary: Notes taken from the archive of Dr. Derek Scratch, written and transcribed from audiolog, regarding his discovery and subsequent study of the subjects henceforth referred to as Specimens 1a and 1b, and 1b's progeny, Specimens 2a through 2l.
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

Date  
July 5th, 2097

GPS Coordinates  
2°17'10.5"N 58°35'30.9"W

Following rumors of a previously undiscovered species, an associate of mine convinced me to join him on an expedition into the deep jungle. In his words "Derek my boy, you must get out of that stuffy lab of yours, join me on my adventure, we'll have a jolly good run of it!" Or some such inanity.

Over the last few weeks, I have become increasingly convinced this was some grand joke made at my expense, or was in fact little more than a ploy to force me to observe him in what can only be described as his natural environment, waist deep in underbrush, machete hacking his way through the more intrusive foliage like some ancient British explorer cutting his way through the African jungles in search of native peoples to subjugate in the name of the empire.

This morning, however, we encountered strange footprints, and while I couldn't tell them from what her or I might have left without our boots, my compatriot insists based on the shape that it was not a human, something to do with size in combination with the length of the digits. He estimated based on the length of the stride and depth of the prints a creature roughly seven to eight feet in height, weighing roughly three hundred and fifty pounds. We followed the prints to a cave entrance, a smeared green hand print present against the side. Again, Dr. English insisted it wasn't human, and this time I was inclined to agree, claw tips visible at the end of digits from a hand large enough to wrap around my head. My urgings to return to our camp and return later, with more people, were brushed off with a wave of his hand and hefting his sizable shotgun, assuring me it could stop anything short of a rhino or similarly sized aggressor.

We'd been walking through the tunnels for several minutes when we saw a light appear in front of us, coming from what seemed to be a small side tunnel. Around the bend we saw a peculiar creature, roughly human in shape, but bearing impressive hooked horns atop it's head, and covered in bioluminescent chitin. Thick green sludge oozed out of a gash in it's side as it warily watched us through eerily human eyes the same dark green. It made a move as if to rise, but froze as the oversized gun rose, slowly easing back against the wall. It made noise, a harsh sounding clicking, churring cry as it's head met the stone wall, nictitating membranes flicking across before the eyes closed.

There was where I made my mistake, I looked into the creatures eyes and for a moment, almost saw something truly human, a foolish, monkey part of me pushed for an approach, to comfort a fellow person as they lay injured. I listened. As I neared, the creature jerked, fangs revealing themselves, claws outstretched. Were it not for my friend and his preposterously large weapon, I likely would have died in that moment, but instead I am able to sit at camp, listening to him regale the rest of our party with the tale whilst planning to return tomorrow morning to see what else lay deeper within.


	2. Chapter 2

Date:  
July 6th, 2097

GPS Coordinates  
2°17'10.5"N 58°35'30.9"W  
  
After some discussion, we have decided to move camp closer to the cave, for ease of exploration. That took up much of the day, so it was quite a while until we were able to return to the depths. The body had moved. A mere three feet, but seemingly under it's own power. That it continued to do anything given the size of the hole in it's chest is astonishing, but I look forward to picking through what remains to see what I can discover. I took a few samples there before we moved the body to the surface and began the dissection.

The armor plating appears to be made of chitin, like the exoskeleton of a arthropod, despite this, it does possess an internal skeleton. The ribs is interwoven with dense musculature, in life these would be able to tighten up, reducing flexibility but reducing the possibility of something finding it's way between the ribs. Bones are highly resistant to breakage, investigation of the bones damaged yesterday indicates small filaments hanging out of the broken ends, the remains of an as-yet-identified lattice structure. Organ redundancy is astonishing, had it been able to staunch the flow of blood, it likely would have survived, even with the massive abdominal damage. Further samples from different organs have been taken and put into storage until I can examine them further in my lab.


	3. Chapter 3

Date:  
July 7th, 2097

We delved deeper into the caverns today and found an interesting discovery. An enormous neotenous arthropod, a grub, well beyond the size such a creature would normally be capable of maintaining. Tracks indicate that the creature previously encountered, or another specimen, came here frequently up until a couple days ago, likely to feed the creature for an as-of-yet unknown reason. My own theory was this thing serves as some sort of cattle, while my compatriot is comparing the creatures placement upon a slightly raised mound with plenty of space surrounding it to a number of ancient shrines or temples he's found. Regardless, it is likely in our best interest for this creature to stay alive for further study, so for now the equipment is running analysis on it's excrement to determine what it eats.

Date:  
July 7th, 2097, approximately three hours after previous entry.

The answer is everything. Analysis determined it to be omnivorous, but with a heavier focus on meat than humans. Protein analysis indicates a similar amino acid requirement as humans. For now, we shall feed it from our supplies and watch for reactions. English is on the sat-com calling in machinery to excavate the creature so we can move it somewhere we can better monitor it.

For now, I shall refer to it and the original creature as Specimens 1b and 1a respectively, based on order of discovery.


End file.
